Councillors at a Buckingham Town Council planning meeting last Monday voted to oppose plans for a new 86-home development next to Tingewick Industrial Estate.

The estate is proposed on a site next to Fishers Field.

Town councillors expressed disappointment that only 16 per cent of the homes are set to be affordable housing, despite a local target of 35 per cent.

Chairman of the planning committee, Paul Hirons, told the Advertiser and Review: “This has had outline planning permission for four or five years and they’ve now come in with detailed plans. They’ve managed to persuade the district valuer it wouldn’t be viable to have 35 per cent.”

Councillors also objected to the plan for the 14 affordable dwellings to be contained within one block of flats.

Mr Hirons said: “Normally we like it scattered throughout the development.”

Two of the blocks, including one on the corner of Tingewick Road, have been designed with flat roofs.

Councillor Warren Whyte told the meeting: “The building is going to be a symbol of the estate locally and it is key that, as the flagship building, it keeps with local themes of housing.”

Another concern was that the developer had not considered the draft Buckingham Neighbourhood Development Plan and its wish to keep the option of a ‘Riverside Walk’ from Fishers Field to Buckingham town centre.

Mr Hirons added: “We thought it would have made a great site for retirement homes for elderly people.

“There are very few sites for that sort of thing near the town centre. It would just have required a bit more imagination.”

The application will be discussed by Aylesbury Vale Dsitrict Council in the new year.